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The Current Age of Youthful Melancholia

Evidence for Increase in Depression Among Adolescents and Young Adults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Gerald L. Klerman
Gerald L. Klerman*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical Center
*
Ms Lorraine Lubin, Editorial Assistant to Dr Klerman, NY Hospital-Cornell Medical College, Westchester Division, 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, NY 10605, USA
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Abstract

The possibility of a rise in rates of depression among adolescents and young adults was first reported in the 1970s. Particular note was taken of the emergence of childhood depression and the increase in suicide attempts and death among adolescents and young adults. Data from large-sample family studies and community epidemiological surveys have been reviewed and reanalysed, using life-table statistical methodology. Evidence for secular trends are presented, and the problems of disentangling period and cohort effect are discussed. It appears that the ‘baby boomers' -those born in the years after World War II- have had increased rates of depression and other related illnesses, including drug abuse and alcoholism. The theoretical aspects of this are discussed, particularly for gene-environment interactions.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 152 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 4 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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Footnotes

*

Presented in part as the third Eli Lilly Lecture to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, 27 January 1987.

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